Boot Failure - Insert System Disk.

[Fred Bloggs]

My daughter has an Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo Vista PC and two days ago it failed to boot. Saying Boot Failure - Insert System Disk. Repair via the Recovery Console failed (bootrec /fixmbr etc....), a Norton Ghost image restore worked but the HDD still fails to boot, a reformat and reinstall has now also failed to boot the PC into Windows. It looks like the HDD is toast. Or am I missing something? The PC has been entirely faultless for 22 months so can't complain really.

What do the experts think, new HDD? Thanks

[TheFaQQer]

I assume that there is nothing in the floppy or CD drives? (Basic, but you never know )

If the PC is useable (when it works), I'd get a new hard drive and copy any data off the old one once it's rebuilt.

If not, then get a new one, get a caddy for the old HDD and plug that in (either USB or Firewire) and copy the data over.

[Clippy]

Check the BIOS to make sure it is still detecting the HDD.

In the past, I have seen cases where the BIOS has defaulted back to factory settings.

May also be worth seeing if a new BIOS is available and updating accordingly.

[Jaws]

I assume that there is nothing in the floppy or CD drives? (Basic, but you never know )

This also applies to USB memory sticks on some machines.

[Fred Bloggs]

I assume that there is nothing in the floppy or CD drives? (Basic, but you never know )

If the PC is useable (when it works), I'd get a new hard drive and copy any data off the old one once it's rebuilt.

If not, then get a new one, get a caddy for the old HDD and plug that in (either USB or Firewire) and copy the data over.

Thanks. Data is secure on the "D" HDD. I checked the "obvious" things thanks.

[Fred Bloggs]

Check the BIOS to make sure it is still detecting the HDD.

In the past, I have seen cases where the BIOS has defaulted back to factory settings.

May also be worth seeing if a new BIOS is available and updating accordingly.

Thanks, the HDD's are identified correctly in the MoBo post, so I reckon that the BIOS is "seeing" them just fine. Thanks.

[Fred Bloggs]

This also applies to USB memory sticks on some machines.

Yes, don't ask me how I know that!

[VectraMan]

What exactly did you do with bootrec? Linky:

http://neosmart.net/blog/2007/bootse...r-not-the-mbr/

Also I have a feeling some BIOSs can lock access to the MBR. It'd be worth a look through all the settings.

It seems odd that a Norton recovery would appear to work if the drive is shafted.

[Fred Bloggs]

Sorry, the Ghost recovery didn't work. The Ghost image data got written to the "C" HDD from the "D" HDD but it still failed to boot. The Ghost image is on the "D" HDD so is safe from corruption.

I used all the available the options in bootrec.exe-

bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd etc......

None of the bootrec.exe commands could "see" a Windows install, despite the fact that I knew it was there still. Hence the reformat and reinstall but still the HDD won't boot. I'll buy a new HDD tomorrow, only £36 notes for a Seagate or Western Digital 320Gb HDD. The one that seems toasted is a 320Gb Samsung FWIW.

[wxman]

Within the BIOS - is the Harddisk interface (SATA) set to ACHI, compatable or ATA

Try setting to ATa or compatable - it just might be that your image does not have the ACHI drivers..

if ACHI drivers are not install then you will get boot errors but more often than not a BSD on boot up!